The Day After
by WeaponFanfic
Summary: With Lyoko in the rebuilding process, XANA still alive and William back in the dark side, the gang find themselves back at square one. Episode 2 of The Reset Arc.
1. Overcast

**The Day After**

_With Lyoko in the rebuilding process, XANA still alive and William back in the dark side, the gang find themselves back at square one. Episode 2 of The Reset Arc._

Disclaimer: Code Lyoko was created by Tania Palumbo and Thomas Romain. It was produced by Antefilms and then by MoonScoop. It is aired in France by France 3 and in America by Cartoon Network. The author is neither employed by or affiliated with any of the above companies or entities. All characters, locales, and other non-original entities are property of the parties mentioned above. All rights reserved.

* * *

An overcast sky dominated the morning in Paris. There was no ray of sunlight that rose on the horizon. The blue atmosphere that greeted people was not present today. Clouds of gray covered the sky this morning, indecisive as to whether or not they would make way for sunshine later in the day or give in to rain instead. This is the type of morning that make people wonder what their next move would be.

Standing outside of her house, Yumi Ishiyama felt the same way. As she waited for her little brother to finish things up so they could make the trek to school, she looked up at the cloudy sky and entered into deep thought. Just last night, she found out that her friend William had sided with XANA once more and regained his powers in the process. Unlike last time, however, he did so out of his own free will. That's what she believed. Her friends all saw it differently. According to them, William must have been under XANA's control once more, hence the reason for his appearance in the virtual world. Whatever the reasoning, the fact remained that XANA regained a major ally since he returned and the task of destroying him once and for all was just made a little tougher. Yumi got out of her train of thought just as her brother put on his shoes and exited the house. With both of them ready for the day, Yumi locked the front door and started making the commute to the Kadic Academy campus.

Hiroki Ishiyama looked at the face of her older sister. Over the years, he became good at figuring out Yumi's mood by simply looking at her face. With a good glance, he could tell if she was happy, sad, angry, or if it was 'that time of the month' for her. Based on the look on her face, he could tell that something was troubling her. Hoping that she would want to talk about it, he said nothing as they left the house. Halfway through the trip, however, they had not said one word to each other. After taking another glance and seeing that her countenance had not changed, he decided to speak. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," she responded in a low tone of voice.

A little bit of silence permeated until Hiroki broke it again. "Does it have to do with Ulrich?" he asked.

"No," she said in the same low tone.

"It has something to do with William, then?" he asked again.

A look of disgust covered Yumi's face. "None of your business!" she spat out.

Hiroki shook his head. "Honestly, sis, you should forget he exists. You know, flat-out reject the guy. He's nothing but trouble for you."

Yumi scowled at her brother again. "You know nothing about William. What makes you think I can just abandon him and forget about him?"

"Because there's Ulrich," he answered confidently. "You two are made for each other and all William is doing is getting you to split apart. You'll see. You tell William to get lost and you'll be happier for it."

Yumi sighed. "Whatever," she said as she tried to calm down. As far as she knew, Hiroki had no idea what William went through over the past year and he certainly had no idea what happened to him last night. It wouldn't be fair if she suddenly blew up on her little brother for speaking his mind. She took a deep breath to get her mind back in order. "What do you know about rejection, anyway? Did you finally get the nerve to ask Milly out?"

Hiroki's eyes bulged out as he was caught by surprise at his sister's question. "Um... no... I haven't... said anything... yet," he stammered out. "But I do keep telling Johnny that he's nuts for chasing you around."

It was now Yumi's turn to have her eyes bulge out in surprise. "You mean he still wants me?" she asked.

Hiroki nodded. "He still thinks you're hot, though I don't know why."

Yumi shook her head as she pushed her brother for that last comment. She made a mental note to herself to set things straight with Hiroki's friend before he goes and does something stupid. As they made their way inside campus, she saw William Dunbar just leaving the cafeteria on his way to his first class.

"Remember, tell him to leave you and Ulrich alone. He never had a chance," Hiroki reminded her as he started his trek to his first class. "See ya," he said as he departed.

The feeling of calm left as Hiroki moved away from her. That feeling was now replaced with anger as she saw that William was on Earth again. She knew it wasn't Jeremie's clone since he erased that program a long time ago. What she didn't know was whether or not this really was William in the flesh or if it was a polymorphic clone sent here by XANA. In her mind, there was only one way to find out.

"Oh, hey, Yumi," William called out as he waved his hand in her direction.

Yumi marched towards him with a sense of anger apparent in her step. "What the hell is the matter with you?" she demanded.

William had a look of confusion on his face. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Don't play dumb with me," she spat. "You went to Lyoko last night and sided with XANA. What's up with that?"

"Honestly, I don't remember doing any of this recently," he answered.

Yumi scoffed at the comment. "So you don't remember giving me a kiss before stabbing me in the gut, is that right?" she asked sarcastically.

William knew something was wrong with her. If he did kiss her, he would certainly remember it. "Are you sick or something, because..." he stopped as he tried to place the back of his hand below her cheek to check her temperature.

Yumi quickly snatched his wrist before his hand could get halfway to it's destination. "Don't. Touch. Me." Her eyes narrowed as she glared in his eyes. "Until you're ready to tell me the truth, I don't want to see you or hear from you again. I don't want to see you near my friends either. You caused them enough pain already. Do you understand?" she asked as she squeezed his wrist to prove her point.

William's face showed a bit of fear as he could feel the pain shoot up from his wrist to the rest of his arm. He nodded furiously until she let go of him. He then took his wrist and rubbed it as he watched her walk to her first class. As the school bell rang, he walked over to his first class, which also happened to be the same one Yumi had. Since they shared almost all of the same classes, he knew that this would be a very long day for him.


	2. Finding Reasons

Yumi had grabbed her tray of chicken nuggets from the lunch line and walked to the table with the rest of her friends. As she walked, she passed by William and gave him the cold shoulder, refusing to acknowledge he existed. She acted this way to him for the time that had passed so far. She couldn't believe his actions and was even more appalled that he pretended like he had no idea what happened to him recently.

For his part, William was simply confused. He really didn't know what happened to him last night. The last thing he remembered was getting a text message on his phone. The next moment, he found himself waking up from his bed, fully relaxed and refreshed. He couldn't believe what Yumi said to him. If he did go back to Lyoko, he would have remembered it and he certainly wouldn't have sided with XANA. As she passed by his table, William opened his mouth to say something to her. Once he realized that she would have nothing to do with him, he closed his mouth and continued to eat his lunch.

Yumi sat down and watched as her friends all stared in disbelief at the figure she just passed by. Jeremie even did a double take as he cleaned his glasses and put them back on to ensure that he wasn't seeing an optical illusion. "Jeremie, did you activate William's clone this morning?" she asked, knowing full well what his answer would be.

Jeremie knew that she knew the answer but said it anyway. "Nope, I destroyed the original and backup copies once we freed William the first time."

"So is that really William?" Aelita asked. "As in the real William, not a polymorphic clone sent here by XANA?"

Yumi nodded. "The real one," she replied. "No XANA eyes on him when I saw him this morning."

Odd raised his hand and looked around the table. "Okay, who saw that coming? Anyone? No one?"

"So if that's the real William, then how did he get to Lyoko and back?" Ulrich asked. "I mean it's not like he just went to the factory, hopped into a scanner, then left while we weren't looking."

"He sure didn't," Jeremie noted. "I checked the surveillance tapes last night and didn't see him there." He began to scratch his chin. "What I want to know is whether or not he's a victim of XANA mind control again."

Yumi shook her head. "He's no victim. It was his choice to join XANA and betray us in the process."

"And how do you know it was his choice?" Ulrich asked.

"How else would XANA have gotten to him?" she fired back. "It's not like he's still linked to him."

"Actually, he could be," Jeremie interjected. "Remember, there was one time after we freed William where he got possessed and almost killed me in the factory. It's possible he still had some remnants of code left in him after the rescue."

Aelita piped up. "So how do we know whether or not he still has that code in him?"

"We don't," Jeremie answered, "unless we can somehow get a full scan of William and analyze his digital DNA."

"We can't invite him to the factory again," Ulrich stated. "Too much of a risk after what happened last time and especially after last night."

"And we can't knock him out and kidnap him," Odd added. "Unless we all want to go to jail, of course."

Yumi grew frustrated. "So now what do we do?"

Jeremie checked his watch. "I don't know. I'll have to think it over during class then head to the factory to do some more work on the supercomputer. If anyone has any ideas, we'll discuss them after class." With that the Lyoko warriors left the table and prepared for the second half of the school day.

The school bell rang through the campus, signifying the end of the day. The gang met up as soon as possible to see if anyone had any idea what to do about their dilemma. A few moments later they came to the conclusion that there was nothing they could do for now. Every method they thought of put them all in immediate danger and was deemed to risky to do. With no solution readily available for them, they all decided to part ways. Odd went to go work on his film while Aelita went with Jeremie to go work on the supercomputer. As was the case these last few months, Ulrich walked home with Yumi for his tutoring lessons.

Ulrich took a brief glance at Yumi's face. He had known her for quite a long time but could never get a good read on her mood based on the expressions on her face. Some time before XANA was first thought to have been killed, Ulrich found himself getting lessons from Hiroki on how to read her face and tell whether or not it was a good time to bother her with anything. He wasn't an expert at it like Hiroki was but he could hold his own and was successful a few times in guessing what kind of mood she was in. From the glance he took, Ulrich could tell that she wasn't in a very good mood at all.

"Still upset about William?" he asked.

"I don't want to talk about it!" she spat.

Ulrich was taken aback. Her anger had grown substantially since lunch. He decided to say nothing else for a while. His curiosity, however, got the better of him and he decided to break the silence once more.

"You know, it's not really his fault if XANA did possess him," he said.

Yumi took a deep angry breath. "And if he did this all on his own, then what? Is he faultless there, too?"

Ulrich saw that this was starting to become an argument he might not win. "Alright," he said as he rubbed his temples. "If he did this all on his own, then why did he do it?"

Yumi sighed. "I don't really know," she admitted.

"Then it's too dangerous to assume that William did this on his own," he reasoned. "All we know for sure is that he's with XANA again and we have to rescue him again."

"Fine," she said forcefully. "But what if he doesn't want to be rescued? Then what?"

Ulrich thought about it for a moment. "Then we'll figure out what to do when we get there," he said plainly.

Yumi buried her face in her hands and sighed deeply. "Can we just drop the subject for now?" she asked. "I've spent all day thinking about this and I need to move on to something else before my head explodes."

Ulrich nodded. While he knew that Yumi still believed that William had betrayed them all, he knew better that to press the subject further. He decided instead to just walk alongside his friend and leave the subject alone.

The low hum of the supercomputer resonated throughout the lower levels of the abandoned automobile factory. As it filled the air, however, the spinning of the fans and the sounds other cooling mechanisms designed to help the device run was only drowned out by the tapping of keys produced by two individuals. Both Aelita and Jeremie chose to spend the afternoon working on code to help aid them in the fight against XANA.

"How are you doing there, Aelita?" Jeremie asked.

The pink-haired girl bit her lip as her focus was set on the laptop screen in front of her. "I'm almost done here," she said. "The overwing, overbike and overboard are finished but I want to modify their stats a bit. It shouldn't take more than an hour to do." She turned her attention to Jeremie. "How's the skid coming along?"

"I wish I could say I was done," he noted. "I couldn't find the final files we used to build the skid so I'm reconstructing it from some of the old files I had backed up. I got the basic shape up and running but I need to build the weapons and defense systems all over again."

Aelita nodded before putting her attention back on her screen. After a few moments of silence, she spoke again. "Hey, Jeremie?" she asked.

"Yeah?" he answered with a question of his own.

"What do you think about William?"

Jeremie cocked an eyebrow. "I don't quite follow you," he responded.

"I mean, do you believe Yumi and think that William did this on him own or do you think that XANA captured him again?" she asked.

Jeremie shook his head. "I'm still not sure," he said. "I'd like to think that William would remember everything he did while he was possessed and choose to stay clean, forcing XANA to capture him to bring him to his side. However..."

"You think that something could have driven him to seek XANA?" she answered, finishing his statement.

Jeremie nodded. "If only I could find a way to analyze his digital make up and see if there was some XANA legacy code in there."

"Looks like you have a new task at hand," Aelita said.

"Skid first," he reminded her. "I'll get to William once this is done."


	3. Flashing Lights

The light of the afternoon sun radiated throughout the campus of Kadic Academy. As the bell rang to end the day, the group came together like they usually did every day. Nothing unusual had happened to them throughout the day, leaving them some time to forget William and a computer AI bent on world domination, even for just a moment.

"So, Jeremie, Aelita, what should we do now that school's done for the day?" Odd asked.

"Whoa, wait a minute," Ulrich said. "Aren't you forgetting about me and Yumi?"

Odd placed his finger on his lip and looked upward, thinking about the comment for a bit. "Nope," he replied. "You two are always busy, so it doesn't make sense for me to ask you guys to join us since you can't anyway."

Ulrich scowled at his best friend. "You can't just assume that we'll be busy all the time."

Odd folded his arms in defiance. "Fine. Ulrich, do you and Yumi want to join the rest of us and do something today?"

"We..." he looked at Yumi and realized what his answer would have to be. "...can't. I've got some History to catch up on."

"And if I don't get him up to speed, he'll be doomed to repeat it," Yumi added jokingly.

Odd smirked. "Told you."

Aelita giggled while Jeremie simply rolled his eyes. Just then, Jeremie heard a beeping noise coming from his backpack. He opened his backpack and retrieved his laptop. "Dying battery?" Aelita asked.

Jeremie shook his head as he flipped open his laptop and punched a few keys. "No such luck," he replied. "I just picked up an activated tower in the desert sector."

Odd sighed. "So much for an afternoon of leisure." As they all took off for the park, Odd spoke up. "Um, can we not take the sewers this time?"

"Why not?" Yumi inquired.

"It's after school," he argued. "No one will think it's weird if we leave campus now. Besides, I feel like I'm some green cartoon hero every time we open up and close those manholes."

"Actually," Ulrich noted, "since you have the tail, we'd be the green heroes and you'd be the rat."

"Oh, funny," he answered sarcastically.

Yumi looked up in the air and rolled her eyes. "Whatever, topside it is." With that, the group left through the main gates of the campus. After traveling a few blocks, she noticed something peculiar about the traffic lights. "That's weird," she stated.

"What is it?" Ulrich asked.

"The lights on the street we're walking by," she said. "They're all green."

Aelita noticed that very same thing. "Maybe it's nothing," she said.

"Maybe," Yumi replied. As she was about to cross the street to the next block, she heard the horn of a car blasting on her left side.

"Look out!" Ulrich shouted as he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back on the sidewalk. Within a split second, the car that was sounding of it's horn had sped through the crosswalk and entered the intersection, narrowly missing the other cars traveling through the area. "That was close," he said in a lower tone.

"Um... thanks," Yumi said, blushing as she noticed that Ulrich had not let go of her yet. Ulrich looked down and finally let go of Yumi's waist before blushing himself.

Odd had a look of bewilderment and anger on his face. "What's that guy's problem?" he asked to no one in particular.

Aelita looked at the traffic lights. "The lights are green for everyone on both sides of the street," she noted. "That must be XANA's plan." The sounds of honking horns, screeching tires and crunched metal soon filled the air of the city.

"It's too dangerous to stay on the streets," Jeremie said. "It's back to the sewers for us." With that, the group found the nearest manhole and went below the streets to get to the factory. A short time later, the Lyoko warriors emerged from another manhole and entered the factory.

The freight elevator stopped once the metallic door opened, revealing the control panel of the supercomputer in the room. Jeremie made a dash for the terminal seat and put on his headset. "Aelita, did you program the vehicles back into the supercomputer?" he asked.

"Already done, Jeremie," she answered.

"Excellent," he replied. "You guys might need them this time around. Head for the scanners so I can virtualize all of you." He began to tap on some keys as the metal door closed and the elevator made it's descent one floor down. As each member of the group entered the scanning pods, Jeremie executed the virtualization commands, sending all four members to the desert sector of Lyoko.

The virtualization process took each person and matched them with their appropriate personas on Lyoko. The procedure created a wireframe version of the person before adding in the polygons then finally the textures. With all four warriors in Lyoko, they took a look at their surroundings and noticed that it was different than what they had expected. The sky was gray as was the ground they were standing on. The formations of rock were taller than usual while the digital sea had a thin layer of fog hovering over it.

'Um, Jeremie," Ulrich said as he held his hand over his ear, "did you send us to the right place?"

Jeremie clicked through his windows to find a live radar scan of the area. "It says here that you're in the desert sector."

Ulrich took a look around at the area he and his friends were occupying. "This looks like the mountain sector to me," he noted.

Jeremie did another fly-by of the area and noticed the traits that were unique to the mountain sector were finally showing up on his radar.

"The good news," Ulrich continued, "is that we see the tower but it's pretty far away. Any chance we can get those vehicles here?"

"Way ahead of you, Ulrich." Jeremie tapped a few keys on the keyboard and within a few moments, the Lyoko warriors witnessed their vehicles materialize in front of them. Yumi boarded her overwing while Odd jumped on his overboard. Ulrich took a seat on his overbike while Aelita clung to his waist and took the seat behind him. With everyone ready, all four of them took off in the direction of the tower.


	4. The Swarm

William lay down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. For the past two days he tried to talk to Yumi. For the past two days he failed that simple task. Every time he wanted to talk to her, she either ignored him or gave him a glare so vicious that he turned or walked away in fear. He so desperately wanted to clear his name and prove that he didn't go back to Lyoko, let alone side with the one who controlled his life in that virtual world. As he lay on his bed, a dull pain suddenly rushed to his head. William grabbed his head with two hands as the pain intensified quickly. Squeezing his head, he heard a voice echo through his brain.

"Come to Lyoko."

"What?" he asked out loud, hoping that another person was physically in his room talking to him. The pain in his head intensified again, causing him to scream in pain.

"Come to Lyoko," the voice said once more.

William screamed louder as the pain was becoming unbearable. He rolled around in his bed, trying to do anything to get rid of the throbbing. He continued rolling as the pain continued to rise. As he was about to black out, he rolled to the edge of the bed and fell hard on the floor. William lay motionless on the floor for a few seconds before he got to his feet. He stood up straight and had a look of determination on his face. Seemingly free from the pain, he grabbed his jacket and exited his dorm room.

Sissi was walking down the hallway when he noticed William emerge from his room. Failing to sense the change in his personality, she stopped and waved her hand. "Hey, William," she said. "What are you up to?"

William, focused on getting to Lyoko, simply passed by without saying a word.

"William?" Sissi called out. She continued looking at him as he passed by, wondering why he said nothing at all. At first, she was annoyed that he didn't even bother to say hello to her. She quickly got over it, however, and went back about her business, pretending that the brush-off didn't happen at all.

Back on Lyoko, the warriors were halfway to their destination point. From where they were, they could see the tower surrounded by a red glow. "We've got a better visual on the tower," Ulrich relayed to Jeremie.

Jeremie focused on the map on his screen where he was monitoring the group's progress. "Looking good on this end," he said. "It shouldn't be much longer."

"Any sign of XANA activity?" he asked. Ulrich and the gang were so used to surprise appearances from XANA's monsters that they often relied on Jeremie to spot them first so that they wouldn't be at an immediate disadvantage.

"No sign of any monsters here. It should be..." He stopped himself as he noticed a large mass of dots coming in towards the tower at a very high rate of speed. "Um, guys," he said. "I'm not sure whether the computer is freaking out or not but I'm picking up multiple dots headed your way fast. You guys see anything unusual out there?"

"I see something," Aelita said. "It looks like a giant dark cloud. If there was a real sun here, it would be big enough to block it out." As the group moved closer to both the tower and the massive cloud, a creature emerged from the mass and flew towards the group at a faster rate than anyone had anticipated. Instinctively, Odd raised his arm, took aim at the creature and fired a laser arrow at it. The shape of the creature became clearer as it headed straight for the arrow. Odd saw the projectile make impact and got a better view of what it had hit as the creature's corpse fell to the ground before it's digital code flew off and faded into the ether.

"That's a swarm of hornets!" Odd shouted out. He looked at the cloud and thought it had grown larger than before. "Make that a swarm of swarms," he added.

Ulrich shook his head. "First it was a horde of kankrelats and bloks," he said. "Now it's a swarm of hornets. XANA obviously believes in the whole 'strength in numbers' thing."

"He also seems to like throwing new characters into the mix," Aelita noted as she pointed forward. As the group came closer to the hornet cloud, they saw what looked like a figure made of numerous hornets standing below the swarm. The insects then dissipated into the cloud, revealing a man the group was all too familiar with.

"William!" Yumi shouted, the anger of his appearance burning in her eyes. Ulrich tried to stop her as she sped off in her overwing towards the villain but felt that his pleas for rational thought would fall on deaf ears. As the vehicle and it's crazed passenger were headed straight for him, William performed his 'super smoke' maneuver and sank into the ground, traveling towards his opponent. Yumi saw this move and increased her speed, anticipating what he would do next. Once the vehicle was close enough to the smoke, Yumi leaped into the air, leaving the overwing on a collision course with William. Just as she suspected, William rose from the ground and knocked the vehicle from underneath, hoping to knock the passenger off balance. Instead, Yumi extended one of her fans and came down, cutting William vertically down his back. She then kicked him, driving him away from the tower and the angry swarm of hornets.

"What's she doing?" Odd asked.

Ulrich looked at the skirmish happening ahead of them. "Keeping William busy," he answered, hoping that he was reading Yumi's mind correctly. . He then looked at Odd as they both passed by the fighters. "Odd, can you drive the overbike?" he asked.

Odd suddenly knew what his best friend had in mind. "Better than you can ride the overboard," he teased.

Normally, Ulrich would find a way to retaliate after being insulted like that. Now, however, was not that time for such actions. He looked at Odd as they both nodded to each other before simultaneously starting a count.

"1... 2... 3!"

Both Odd and Ulrich slowed down their respective vehicles before simultaneously making a flying leap into the other one. Ulrich was now riding the overboard while Odd was driving the overbike with Aelita still in the passenger's seat.

"What are you doing?" Aelita asked, surprised that the stunt didn't get either one of them devirtualized.

"Formulating a plan and splitting up," Ulrich responded. "I need you to shield Odd while he drives around and starts picking off the hornets. Meanwhile, I'll be flying by reflecting some of their laser blasts. Hopefully Yumi can buy us enough time so that we can swat down the swarm and you can go deactivate the tower." With that, Ulrich drifted to the right side of the tower to begin his attack. He began to swerve left and right before deflecting a few laser shots back at his attackers. As he saw his laser shots miss the hornets, he jumped off the overboard and carried it as an impromptu shield, preferring to attack on foot to increase his projectile deflecting accuracy.

"You ready, princess?" Odd asked.

Aelita began to focus her energy for the task at hand. "Let's go," she said before she created a protective bubble around herself and Odd. Odd then sped off to the left side of the tower and stuck his hand outside of the bubble to begin his attack, alternating after every few shots to prevent his weapon from overheating.


	5. Battling for Answers

William instinctively grabbed his back as he picked up his sword from the ground. As his hand found the beginning and the end of the cut, he was thankful that his virtual form did not feel any physical pain. With both of his hands clutching the handle of his weapon, he faced Yumi, who had an open fan in both of her hands. He took a long horizontal swing with his broadsword that Yumi caught with both of her fans, guiding him away from his target. She then spun around and elbowed him in the back, causing him to lose his balance for a bit as he moved forward. Seeing him in a vulnerable position, Yumi spread out one of her fans and attempted to place another cut on his back. William, however, ducked forward to avoid the slash. He extended his leg and connected with a sweep, knocking the girl to the ground. He regained his bearings and raised his sword above his head, preparing to stab her on the ground. Yumi saw the blade come down and rolled away just before it made contact with the ground. She got up and began running for a nearby rock wall, tossing a fan at William. He raised his sword from the ground and deflected the projectile before giving chase.

Yumi grabbed the fan as it boomeranged back to her. As she approached a rock wall, the turned to face her pursuer and unfurled her fans. William ran forward with his sword cocked back, ready to strike. As he thrust his sword forward, ready to skewer his victim, Yumi ducked out of the way. The blade embedded itself deep into the rock wall, seemingly stuck in place. With William trying to pull the sword from the stone wall, Yumi saw her opportunity and kicked him in the stomach, knocking him away from his weapon. She got up and followed up the kick with an uppercut before he had a chance to recover. William opened his eyes long enough to see the female warrior lunge forward with a flying kick to the chest, pushing him back to another nearby rock wall. Yumi then grabbed one of his wrists and stabbed the palm of his hand against the wall with a closed fan before doing the same with his other hand. She then unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks to his whole body, weakening him enough so that he wouldn't have the strength to turn into smoke and escape his bindings. After seeing the damage she had done, Yumi took one step forward and seized William by the neck.

"Are you in control or not?" she screamed at his face.

Seeing that there was no way to escape at the moment, William flashed a smile of defiance. "You really don't want the answer to that one," he replied.

Yumi shoved his head against the rock wall before following it up with a hard slap to the face. "Answer me!" she demanded. "Am I fighting against William right now or a XANA controlled puppet?"

William looked at his hands and saw some of his digital code slowly seep away from his hands like blood. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment before answering. "It's me," he answered. "I did this out of my own free will."

Yumi scowled at him. "Why? After everything that happened to you on Lyoko, why did you go back to XANA?" she asked.

William shot a look of disgust at Yumi. "Revenge," he answered.

Yumi had a look of shock and bewilderment of her face. "I don't understand."

"Think about it," he said. "You used me. You get in a fight with Ulrich and you run to me for comfort. Then you and he make up and I get left behind. Over... and over... and over again. So how do you decide to repay me for all that time I spent with you? You get your friends to send me to Lyoko so I could get captured by XANA and you leave me there. How humane of you."

Yumi stood there speechless. She had no idea that was how he felt about her.

"It's your fault," he continued. "It's all your fault that I got here and got corrupted. So now it's time I get some payback." Before Yumi could do anything, William transformed into a puff of smoke and reappeared in front of her, punching her in the stomach. As she keeled over from the blow, William took some of his smoke to bind her arms together and used it to lift her in the air.

"I made a deal with the devil," William declared as he continued to move her in the air. "I help XANA get what he wants and he helps me get what I want: you trapped in this virtual world forever." He pulled back his arm, dragging Yumi closer to him. "Until then, I will be the most annoying obstacle you will face in this world." William thrust his arm forward, pushing Yumi towards the embedded sword. The force from the push was strong enough to push the handle of the sword through Yumi's chest, causing her to devirtualize from the world.

Ulrich reflected another laser shot, destroying the hornet that fired it. He glanced up at the sky and saw that the cloud of artificial insects had thinned out considerably, He turned back to check in on Yumi and saw her as she flew through the air and met her virtual demise. "Yumi!" he screamed out as he saw her disintegrate. With his hand gripping his katana tighter, he hoped on the overboard and glided off to meet William.

William walked over to his sword and, after a few strong tugs, took it out of the rock wall. He looked at his hands and saw that they still had the holes created from the fans that stabbed them. He lay the blade on his shoulders and turned to meet Ulrich.

The young samurai jumped off of the overboard and unsheathed both of his swords. "No more running!" he shouted. "You and me. Now!"

William gripped his sword with two hands and placed it in front of him. "A tired combatant versus an injured one. A fair enough fight, I'd say." Both warriors then ran at each other and took tried to strike each other simultaneously, locking their swords in the process. After a brief struggle, William and Ulrich pushed away from each other before initiating combat once more.

Odd retreated his left arm into Aelita's protective bubble while he exposed his right arm to continue his attacks. He looked up and saw that while the hornet swarm was not as dense as before, he still had some work cut out for him before Aelita could go in and shut down the tower. "How are you holding up back there, Aelita?" he asked.

The pink-haired wonder had maintained her energy shield since Odd began his attack run on the hornets. The bubble had only sustained a few hits thanks to Odd's ability to drive the overbike out of harm's way. This didn't make her job any easier, however, since it still required her to focus all of her energy on keeping the shield up. While her face showed signs of fatigue, her will power would not let her admit defeat so easily. "I can hold out for a little bit longer," she said, a tinge of fatigue present in her voice.

"Don't worry, princess, I'm just about done here," he assured her as he continued to pick away at the swarm.

William and Ulrich both backed away from each other. After a few short rounds of swordplay, neither of them was able to inflict harm on the other. Both combatants showed signs of fatigue, though William looked worse for wear thanks to the wounds inflicted on him earlier by Yumi. After a few shorts breaths, both of them went on the attack once more.

"Why do you continue to fight me?" William asked as he swung for Ulrich's neck. "I have no beef with you."

"Sorry, William," Ulrich answered as he blocked the attack, "but you hurt my friend. Friends don't let friends get hurt." He pushed the sword away and retaliated with a slash of his own that nicked William in the wrist.

William gripped the sword and unleashed a giant swing at Ulrich, knocking one katana out of his hand while sending the other flying straight for a rock, embedding it into the stone much like his was earlier. Ulrich had a look of surprise on his face as he stood there defenseless. XANA's disciple then raised his sword above his head, preparing for his killing blow. "Any last words before you lose?" he asked.

Ulrich closed his eyes for a second then opened them narrowly. "Triplicate!" he shouted out. In an instant, two clones materialized next to him and began rushing their opponent. William ignored his victim as he instead focused his attention on defending himself from the clones' punches. Ulrich dove for the katana on the ground and waited for an opening.

After being on the defensive for a short time, William began to gain control of the fight. He dodged the punch of one clone and immediately retaliated with a diagonal slash across the chest, killing it instantly. He then dodged he attack of the next clone, letting the momentum of the punch force the duplicate to pass by him, giving him the chance to turn around and perform another vertical slash on the clone, causing it to disappear in a matter of seconds. Before he could focus on the real opponent, he felt a sharp object pierce through his body. As he dropped his sword to the ground, he looked down to see the blade of a katana pierce through his chest.

Ulrich's clones gave him the opportunity he needed to end the fight. As William turned to dispatch the last clone, Ulrich lunged forward and plunged his sword into William's back and through his chest. Once he heard the clang of the broadsword as it hit the ground, he twisted his sword, finishing off his killing blow. William's body began to disintegrate soon after, his digital code evaporating into the air before the corpse disappeared.

Aelita struggled to keep her shield alive for just a few more moments. Her fatigue, however, got the better of her as she dropped her arms to her side, letting the protective bubble fade away. "I'm sorry, Odd," she said. "I can't keep it up any longer."

"That's fine, Aelita," he said as he fired off one last shot. "I don't need it anymore."

Aelita looked up into the sky and saw that it had cleared up. The large swarm of hornets that blanketed the sky just a moment ago had all disappeared. She breathed a sigh of relief and was glad that she and her driver had survived the attack fully intact.

Odd drove the overbike to the entrance of the tower and parked it there. "Think you have enough strength to finish the job?" he asked.

Aelita stepped off of the vehicle and took a deep breath. "I hope so," she answered as she passed through the outer wall and entered the structure. A blue tint and boxes of code made up the interior design of the tower. Professor Schaeffer's daughter stepped onto the platform in the middle of the tower and began to levitate to the center. She landed on the floating platform and placed her hand on the monitor presented before her. After a quick scan, the monitor recognized her digital signature and gave her full access to the inner workings of the tower. Once the password prompt appeared, she entered the only password that mattered in this situation: Lyoko. The tower began the deactivation sequence, the blue hue giving way to a sea of black. With the mission complete, the remaining Lyoko warriors were devirtualized and sent back to the scanning room of the factory.


	6. Accepting Consequences

"That was the most exhausting mission we've had since we started fighting XANA again," Ulrich stated as the elevator door opened to the control room floor.

"You said it," Odd agreed. "After this, I feel like I could sleep for a week."

"But you always sleep for that long," Aelita quipped.

The purple-clad boy rolled his eyes. "At least I get some sleep, unlike your nocturnal beau over there." That comment earned him a sharp elbow jab in the ribs from her.

"So, how did we do?" Ulrich asked.

"Mission accomplished!" declared Jeremie. "With the tower deactivated, the traffic lights have all gone back to their normal timing patterns. XANA loses again."

Ulrich looked around and noticed that their group was missing one member. "Where's Yumi?" he asked.

"She left after re-entering the scanning room," Jeremie replied, placing his focus back on the monitor. After clicking on a few keys, he opened up the live video feeds from the few operational security cameras in the facility. "Looks like she's hanging out by the bridge outside of the factory." Without a moment to lose, Ulrich rushed to the elevator and took it to the ground floor.

"Return to the past?" Odd asked.

Jeremie shook his head. "Not yet. It's been a tough day for both of them. Let's give them a few minutes alone before we take everyone back."

Ulrich walked outside of the factory and saw Yumi sitting by the edge of the bridge. He walked forward and saw a solemn look on her face as she stared out at the sun setting near the small river below her. "Mind if I sit here?" he asked. "You know... because." Yumi looked up and provided a weak smile before scooting over a bit to the side, giving him a little more room to sit down. As he took his place next to her, Ulrich thought about trying to say something to break the silence between them. After remembering what happened the last time he did that, however, he decided against it and waited for Yumi to open things up herself.

"He told me why he did it," she said as she continued looking out into the distance. "He thinks it's my fault that he got messed up in Lyoko the first time and now he wants to take out his revenge on me."

Ulrich couldn't find a response for that comment. He simply looked at Yumi's face as she continued talking.

She cracked a false smile as she produced a weak laugh. "Funny thing is, he's right. I mean, I asked him to be part of the team to go fight XANA and look what happened to him. If I didn't do that so many months ago, he'd be fine and none of this would have happened."

Ulrich shook his head. "You know that's not true," he said. "We all took a vote and decided that we needed him on the team."

Yumi finally turned to face Ulrich. "But I was the one that voted no at first," she reminded him. "I should have just stuck with my guns and stayed with the no vote."

"And yet we pressured you into changing your vote," he reminded her. "We all share the blame in what happened to William. That's why we all tried to fix it the first time and we did it. It's not your fault he went back this time around. In fact, it's no one's fault but his own." There was a moment of silence before he spoke again. "All we can do is try and convince him that he made a mistake and hopefully he can fix things himself."

Yumi scoffed as she looked at the thin stream of water below. "You make it sound so easy," she retorted.

Ulrich shook his head. "It's not," he stated. "Nothing in our lives has ever been easy ever since Lyoko got discovered. We just have to do what we can and hope for the best."

Yumi sighed and leaned her head on Ulrich's shoulder. "When did you learn to be so positive about things?" she asked.

Ulrich leaned his head on hers. "I'm always positive," he answered. "I just never needed to show it until now." He sighed as both of them watch the last few moments of the sunset before the white bubble of the time program enveloped them, fixing some of the damage done earlier that day.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

_Story #9 is over and done with. This was another tough one to write but it was fun as well. Let's get some notes written._

_-Wits: As of this writing, "Wits" has officially become Episode 3 of The Reset Arc. The summary for that fic has changed to reflect this fact and my bio page states the same._

_-Action sequences: Action sequences, when done correctly, are beautiful to watch. When written well, they are an awesome thing to read. Writing them, however, sucks. This is especially true if you have had no real experience doing them. The last time I wrote very extensive action sequences was in "Writer's Block." After that, every sequence I ever wrote has been short snippets before being interrupted by dialog. I'm hoping to get better in this area so don't be surprised if action starts to creep it's way into the series more often._

_And there it is. I've already got episode 4 planned out but once that's done, I'm not sure if I want to immediately go after episode 5 or do another oneshot first. I'll see how I feel once the next episode hits. You should know the deal by now._

_Till next time._


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